As a consequence of the armed conflict in Ukraine, an Ethereum mining pool has canceled its service to customers with a Russian IP address.
“We are terminating service to all Russian IP addresses and paying outstanding balances,” reads a statement from the Ethereum mining pool Flexpool, which is currently made up of 52,174 miners that generate a computing power of 54.3 TH/s.
This Ethereum mining pool is located in the 5 place in terms of processing power, according to Mining Pool Stats. Its computing power is equivalent to a third of the hashrate of the second largest Ethereum mining pool f2pool.com, and a sixth of that of ethermine.org.
The ad of Flexpool happens after Russia began bombing numerous cities in Ukraine since Thursday, a measure that has been questioned and denounced around the world by institutions, governments and individuals.
In its statement, the Ethereum mining pool expresses the reasons that lead the company to cancel the service of IP addresses from Russia.
This is not about politics; it’s about preventing the end of the world and saving lives. Businesses and individuals must put the planet before profit in the modern age. Ukraine has four nuclear power plants. Even ignoring the possibility of World War III, there is the possibility of another Chernobyl in case one of the plants is in danger.
Flexpool.
The mining pool calls on other actors in the ecosystem to join the protests against the attacks that Russia is carrying out on Ukrainian territory and apologize for a measure that can be considered unilateral.
We generally do not get involved in politics despite our personal opinions as a company. However, this is bigger than politics, bigger than anyone. This is a war that can end the world.
Probably miners based in Russia will be able to continue mining once connections to other mining pools are established. However, an escalation of measures by other companies and international sanctions that affect cryptocurrency mining or the supply of equipment in the country could be foreseen.
Flexpool.
Yesterday, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, also expressed his opinion regarding Russia’s military attack, as reported by CriptoNoticias. According to Buterin, “Putin’s military operation is an attack on the Ukrainian people and the Russian people.”
In this sense, the community seems to agree on one thing: nobody wants war.
